Discover how Smart Test transformed Workday update testing for a Canadian software company
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“When we started working with Smart Test, our first question was ‘What do we need to test?' Kainos helped to guide us with a testing strategy and from there we have been able to build our test packs that we use, not only in the update window but weekly and automatically – so it is great.”
About the company
The software company provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world. Based in Canada, the company leverages AI and machine learning to deliver innovative solutions in the areas of cybersecurity, safety, and data privacy.
A successful transformation
As part of the company’s global digital transformation journey, they implemented Workday in 2014 to have one centralised HR system, consolidate processes and increase operational efficiency.
“Attracting and retaining talent is critical to our company's success. Our HR staff need to be focused on supporting the business in those areas so that is why we invest in modern technologies such as Workday. It allows us to be efficient and enables our HR staff and leaders to put their focus on helping our customers," explains the VP, HR Operations & Systems.
The Challenge: Testing pressures increase during Workday’s bi-annual update
Workday’s bi-annual update is the chance for customers to enjoy all-new, game-changing features and functionality. While it is an exciting time, it can also be challenging for testing teams to battle against limited resources, data issues, planning, processes, or skills to execute thousands of tests to mitigate against system disruption. As long-standing customers since 2014, the company have experienced multiple Workday updates. During these update periods, the HR team would often find themselves facing several obstacles in relation to manual testing.
“One of the key challenges for us was finding internal staff that had the knowledge to test properly. When we went through our first Workday release update, we had 1,600 regression scenarios that were being manually tested by a team of approximately 12 people, each representing a functional area over a four-week window. Our manual testing was using a lot of time and resources - we had recruiters doing Workday testing, instead of recruiting which should be their focus to help attract extraordinary talent and help us grow as a company."
With limited time and knowledge of testing, the software company struggled with knowing what to test. VP, HR Operations & Systems explains, “With every release window we have been trying to streamline and improve our testing strategy but we wanted to be confident in our approach.”
The challenge of manually testing across multiple countries presented the company with concerns of increased risk around quality, security, and compliance. “Security and compliance are a huge priority for us. We did not have the same coverage or quality when manually testing, that we would get with an automated testing solution. It is important that our tenant is operating effectively and securely on a weekly basis, not just during the update window. We want to ensure the updates do not drastically change or cause errors in business processes and configuration,” explains the VP, HR Operations & Systems.
Workday growth limited by lack of resources and manual testing
Due to a lack of resources in-house, the software company found themselves struggling to retain consistency in their testing results. The Principal HR Systems Analyst at the company explains, “We were running into situations where people were not testing the proper item or the testing results were inconsistent, and we were not seeing people actively testing. They would wait to the last minute to complete the testing as they were busy with their main job functions and understandably, it just was not a priority to them. This caused issues for the HRIS team because if they waited until the last minute to test, we then did not have enough time to investigate and resolve the issue prior to it being moved to production. We were also falling behind with implementing new features because we were spending so much time on testing and that limits our Workday growth.”
The Solution: Scalable automation to manage testing proactively
With the desire to become more proficient and gain confidence in testing, the company purchased Smart Test to automate the testing process during the update window and become operationally efficient. Since going live with Smart Test, they have cut the team’s update testing effort by 80% and improved overall test coverage and identified testing gaps.
“With Smart Test automation, we do not have to worry about what or who is testing because we get exactly what we wanted. We provide Smart Test with our testing scenarios, and we get the same results within a day or two, each time and we do not have to worry about inconsistent results."
The Benefits: Automation reduces risk and provides assurance
Since implementing Smart Test, the software company have benefitted from reduced testing efforts and time spent on updates. Furthermore, it has allowed the team to refocus their efforts into strategic activities and utilise bandwidth to capitalise on each update’s new functionality. “With Smart Test we can introduce more new features into Workday allowing us to continue to grow our operational efficiency. It allows the business more time to allocate to the new features, than to just regression testing. It gives us the ability to keep up with new feature functionality and ensure we continue to streamline business processes for our managers and employees."
Smart Test’s automation has given the company confidence throughout the testing period and beyond and has enabled them to be thorough and proactive throughout the process. “Smart Test identified things we did not even know were issues, for example certain security groups having access to fields that they should not. Our security has highlighted some of the areas we need to correct."
Adopting Smart Test has helped the company become more confident in building repeatable tests so that they can confidently pinpoint errors in their Workday configurations. “Another major benefit is the bi-weekly testing that Smart provides. This was non-existent prior to the introduction of Smart. We only tested during the Workday release five-week window due to limited resources so this has highlighted items that may have been impacted by Workday’s Service Note for that week, which we may have missed or were or unaware of."
The Results: The Impact of Kainos Smart Test
With automated, scalable Workday testing in place, the team is now freed up to work on more high-value, strategic projects. Smart Test has given their team increased peace of mind because they know they have Kainos experts on-hand to provide advice and support forming a truly ‘one-team’ approach to testing. Looking ahead, the software company plans to create their own Smart Test scenarios to test any new configuration and automate those test cases so that employees can focus on higher value activities.
The team are delighted with the support and access to expertise that Kainos provides. “The relationship we have with Kainos has been great. Kainos are always easy and eager to help. It has been a very collaborative partnership.”